- Landlords are increasingly allowing pets in rental properties, with Kiwi Property's Resido leading the trend.
- Resido has 33 pet owners, including 18 dogs and 15 cats, with no extra pet bond.
- Crockers’ Shanon Aitken notes newer landlords are more relaxed about pets, especially smaller dogs.
Having a pet in rental accommodation appears to be getting easier in New Zealand, with reports of landlords softening their stance on renting to people with cats and small dogs.
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Some facilities factor pets into the mix as a tenants’ right, as long as the animal fits certain requirements.
Resido, Kiwi Property’s build-to-rent apartments at Sylvia Park in Mt Wellington, has 33 pet owners with the number expected to grow.
Currently, 18 dogs, 15 cats and a parrot named Alex are in residence. Sometimes you might find a cat on a lead in the lift on its way for a walk, and the complex has its own “pooch park” where dogs can play and run around off leash, plus there is a wash station on site.
Caitlin Walker, Resido’s property and leasing manager, said the philosophy behind allowing pets was that people should not have to own a property to live the way they wanted to.
“Owning a pet shouldn’t dictate where you can and can’t live. We just wanted to try and make it easier for people and you can still come and live in a beautiful space whether you have a fur baby or a human baby.”
Resido was opened by Prime Minister Christopher Luxon earlier this year. Photo / Jason Oxenham
Societal changes were at play with people choosing to have children later in life, or not have them at all, so pets became a key part of the family.
The rules at Resido were only for dogs (you can have two as long as they are combined under 25kg), cats, birds and fish, but Walker says other requests would be considered on a case-by-case basis.
She recently had a query from someone asking if they allowed lizards, and she said that would probably depend on the type and size of the lizard.
“They also said that they take the lizard out on a walk so anything goes. I'm not sure what that would look like. Maybe they just take them out in their pocket.”
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If you keep rats and mice as pets, or spiders, they might not be welcome, however, as anything that could escape and cause an infestation, or breed quickly and cause a problem, would not be allowed, said Walker.
“We do have to remember we are the owner of this entire complex so it's not about just pleasing one apartment and moving on.
“We have to make sure we're making it enjoyable for the entire complex so we do have to consider you might have someone who's terrified of a tarantula and if it got out of its cage it could cause some serious issues.”
Residents at Resido can take out a lease for 10 years and have security of tenure with their pets (the lease can be broken with sufficient notice) which was “putting some pride back into the rental market,” said Walker.
Pets are an important part of some people's lives and Resido was built with that in mind. Photo / Supplied
The concept was modelled on overseas build-to-rent markets, and Resido was the first of its scale in New Zealand to allow pets, a model Walker thought would expand.
“I think we're being used as the test of the market. Everyone's sort of looking to us to sort of see ‘OK, does this work, can it work’?
“We have to move towards this more. We've got this unrealistic view of the Kiwi dream of owning your own house with the big backyard and it's just not possible these days.”
While there were bound to be complaints at times around pets, Walker said she had not actually had any and that the pets tended to get along but that anything considered a dangerous or menacing dog would not be allowed.
The Government is expected to bring in legislation around pet bonds next year but Walker said a pet bond was not required at Resido with pets included in the rent for no extra charge.
She said there was often an enormous sense of relief from people with pets they had finally found somewhere pet-friendly to rent, and she said there was plenty of room left at the facility with half of the 295 apartments leased so far.
Tenants with pets at Resido are not charged extra. Photo / Supplied
While Resido was set up with pets in mind, landlords in the wider rental market have also become more amenable to pets, says Shanon Aitken, Crockers’ general manager for business development and marketing.
Crockers manages thousands of rental properties in Auckland and Aitken said four or five years ago it was rare to find a pet-friendly rental but that had changed, particularly with newer landlords who were more relaxed.
Landlords generally were not keen on larger dogs but that was less of a problem with the changing property types investors were buying and the growing popularity of smaller dogs.
“We’re seeing less of the quarter acre lifestyle block houses with large sections and fenced sections – they are not the properties investors have been buying in the last four or five years.
“What we're seeing is a lot more townhouses and a lot more properties with considerably smaller sections which don’t offer themselves to larger pets.”
Aitken said pets had become an easier topic to raise with landlords since the Government discussion around pet bonds.
“I think in some ways the fact that it's in the news, it sort of warms people up to the idea ‘well, this is possibly something I need to consider.’”
The main concern of landlords was damage to their property, but Aitken said that was not something Crockers’ property managers saw much of.
“It's not a big issue, to be honest, but I think also the type of dog which is being kept now, which is smaller dogs, are less inclined to cause damage to the property.”
The design of new houses had also helped as more houses had wooden or artificial flooring rather than carpet.
“It's been a multitude of different factors, to be honest.”
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